QuotesCosmos
Brahmins difficult to convert, Francis Xavier in a letter to The Society of Jesus dated 31 December 1543 M.K. Kuriakose, History of Christianity In India, Source Materials, Published for The Senate of Serampore College, The Christian Literature Society, 1982, p., 30 quoted from Jain, M. (editor) (2011). The India they saw: Foreign accounts. New Delhi: Ocean Books. Volume III Chapter 10
“

We have is in these parts a class of men among the pagans who are called Brahmins. They keep up the worship of the gods, the superstitious rites of religion, frequenting the temples and taking care of the idols. They are as perverse and wicked a set as can anywhere be found, and I always apply to them the words of the holy David, “From an unholy race and a wicked and crafty man deliver me, O Lord.” They are liars and cheats to the very backbone. Their whole study is how to deceive most cunningly the simplicity and ignorance of the people…All the time I have been here in this country I have only converted one Brahmin…

— Francis Xavier

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "We have is in these parts a class of men among the pagans who are called Brahmins. They keep up the worship of the gods, the superstitious rites of religion, frequenting the temples and taking care of the idols. They are as perverse and wicked a set as can anywhere be found, and I always apply to them the words of the holy David, “From an unholy race and a wicked and crafty man deliver me, O Lord.” They are liars and cheats to the very backbone. Their whole study is how to deceive most cunningly the simplicity and ignorance of the people…All the time I have been here in this country I have only converted one Brahmin…" in the context of "Brahmins difficult to convert, Francis Xavier in a letter to The Society of Jesus dated 31 December 1543 M.K. Kuriakose, History of Christianity In India, Source Materials, Published for The Senate of Serampore College, The Christian Literature Society, 1982, p., 30 quoted from Jain, M. (editor) (2011). The India they saw: Foreign accounts. New Delhi: Ocean Books. Volume III Chapter 10" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Francis Xavier" (Quotes) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app

Tags

#Francis Xavier#wicked#superstitious#frequenting#simplicity#cunningly#ignorance#peopleall#converted#brahmins#religion#perverse
Francis Xavier

About Francis Xavier

Francis Xavier, S.J. (7 April 1506; 3 December 1552), was a Navarrese Basque Roman Catholic missionary, born in Javier (Xavier in Navarro-Aragonese or Xabier in Basque), Kingdom of Navarre (present day Spain), and a co-founder of the Society of Jesus. He was a companion of Saint Ignatius of Loyola and one of the first seven Jesuits who took vows of poverty and chastity at Montmartre, Paris, in 1534. He led an extensive mission into Asia, mainly in the Portuguese Empire of the time and was influential in evangelization work, most notably in India. The Goa Inquisition was proposed by St. Francis Xavier. He also was the first Christian missionary to venture into Japan, Borneo, the Maluku Islands, and other areas. In those areas, struggling to learn the local languages and in the face of opposition, he had less success than he had enjoyed in India. Xavier was about to extend his missionary preaching to China when he died on Shangchuan Island.